Chris Walden has been turning out classical and pop/classical scores for Hollywood for some time now, though more recently gaining recognition with some outstanding modern big band jazz compositions and recordings (Home of My Heart garnered a pair of Grammy nominations, in fact). In his Symphony No. 1, performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra that he's worked with intensively over the years, Walden takes a turn toward the classical mainstream, as it were. The four movements each take their cue from an elemental ...
Read More
Chris Walden has been turning out classical and pop/classical scores for Hollywood for some time now, though more recently gaining recognition with some outstanding modern big band jazz compositions and recordings (Home of My Heart garnered a pair of Grammy nominations, in fact). In his Symphony No. 1, performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra that he's worked with intensively over the years, Walden takes a turn toward the classical mainstream, as it were. The four movements each take their cue from an elemental form: earth, water, air, and fire. The movements do take on some predictability in their themes, though there are interesting touches thrown in. While the first movement, "Gaia" (earth), starts out with a "big bang" and contains a decent amount of fairly pastoral material (common to earth-themed compositions), it also holds a little technical surprise: the strings play out a long D flat in imitation of a frequency given off by the earth's rotation. The water movement begins with a...
Read Less
